Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Overall, I am quite pleased with this EF ECOFLOW Delta Portable Power Station. The product looked attractive, seemed robust in construction, and was in good repair upon receipt. All outlets and USB ports worked. All expected chords and cables were in present and functional. Battery capacity performed as advertised. Solar panel performance was good. Setup and operation was easy. *** Initial Charging *** The initial factory charge was roughly 30%. The first charge (which paperwork clearly indicated should occur before use) using a standard household AC outlet took about 50 minutes, consistent with the easy to read digital display that lit upon beginning the charge. *** Instructions Quality *** The manual was generally clear, aside from a few grammatical/spelling errors and a slightly vague description/diagram of how to use the solar panel carrying case as a kickstand to angle the solar panels toward the sun. The manual added some important details that were not (as far as I could tell) on the ECOFlow website: 1) The power station needs 3-4 hours to cool before charging after a full drain. 2) Putting 3 solar panels in serial is limited to the 110W panels due to a 400W charging input limit The first point (regarding cool time) is disappointing if hoping to quickly recharge the power station during a multi-day power outage. Hopefully, the manually is overly cautious. The second point is no big deal so long as you notice it before purchasing any additional solar panels. If you read on the ECOFlow website that you could put up to 3 110W panels in series for a faster charge than one panel and also read that the 160W panel was compatible with the ECOFLow Delta, you might have thought about getting 160W panels to charge even faster. Unfortunately, 160Wx3 = 480W, which is greater than the 400W limit. It does beg the question as to whether you could squeak by in less than ideal sunlight or whether exceeding the limit would damage the product. The manual nor website FAQs answered this question, although I am sure that customer support would answer if asked. *** Powering Refrigerator *** I powered a full sized Maytag refrigerator all day. Starting with a 100% charge, I plug-in the refrigerator at 7:15 AM. I could immediately hear the refrigerator running and see the power station display indicate output of 140W and the display indicated 7 hours of battery remaining. At 5:15 PM (10 hours later) the charge was 28% and the display indicated 2 hours remaining. The underestimate makes sense, given that the refrigerator cuts on and off as it cools and the display assumes a constant pull. Consistent with this assumption that the display logic only uses the current instantaneous draw, the display read 99 hours remaining when the refrigerator cut off. Since the manual recommended draining to 30% and then charging to 80% every three months, I stopped the experiment then, rather than drain the battery to zero. The ice in the freezer was still frozen and the refrigator was still cool. *** Powering Other Appliances *** After recharging to about 80% via solar power (see below), I confirmed that various other appliances worked and read the wattage output display for future reference. Results: Tablet: 17W (quick charger plugged into outlet) Tablet: 12W (plugged in USB port) Modem/Router: 12W Laptop, 14-in 15W Laptop, 17-in: 50W 60-in TV: 95W 60-in TV + ChromeCast: 98W Modem/Router + Large Desktop Computer + 24" Monitor: 110 - 140W (fluctuated) Microwave (rated 1100W): 1660W Everything functioned perfectly. During the 30 second microwave job, the display indicated that high a power draw would last 32 minutes (battery was at 81%). *** Solar Charging *** I tried this in North Florida in late June. I used a single ECOFlow 160W solar panel. I started at 6:30 AM, with the power station battery at 28%. It very was cloudy. I placed the solar panel flat on the driveway and connected the cables. Input was about 5W. Once the sun peaked through the clouds briefly, letting me know where to aim, I angled the solar panel toward the sun using the solar panel case as a kickstand. The input wattage said about 10W, but each time the sun peaked through the clouds it jumped to 60W or so. By 10:00 AM, the sun was out of the clouds more often, I had adjusted the angle of the panels again, the input wattage occasionally jumped to around 100W, and the batter percentage had reached 39%. I had to leave then, so I put the panels flat on the driveway, set the power station in the garage, and closed the garage door on the cable. This left the battery in the shade and kept it out of reach of potential thieves but left the solar panels free of any shadows from the house or trees. With the sun pretty high in the sky, I assumed that the panels would be nearly perpendicular to the sun until I returned. Soon upon leaving the day become bright and sunny for the remainder of the day. When I returned at 4:00 PM, battery percentage was 80%.